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Polish PM: Western politicians feel ‘superior’ to new EU members

PR dla Zagranicy
Paweł Kononczuk 15.04.2016 13:27
Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydło has said that politicians from Western European countries like to “instruct” new EU member states because they feel a “sense of superiority.”
 PM Beata Szydło (right). Photo: PAP/Jakub Kaczmarczyk
PM Beata Szydło (right). Photo: PAP/Jakub Kaczmarczyk

Szydło was speaking two days after the European Parliament passed a resolution warning that the “effective paralysis” of Poland's Constitutional Tribunal endangers the rule of law, democracy and human rights in this country.

In January, the European Commission said it was starting a probe into whether controversial laws pushed through by Szydło’s conservative Law and Justice party, which came to power in October, violate EU standards.

Szydło on Friday told the Polish public broadcaster’s TVP Info channel: "Poland is a democratic state, so why would the EU would concern itself with democracy in Poland?”

She added: “I have two answers: first - it's about money. I know that sounds terrible, it shouldn’t be that way, but we’re calling a spade a spade.

“Secondly, politicians from the ‘old EU’ like to instruct others. There is this sense of superiority of these countries over new [EU members] from Central and Eastern Europe."

Speaking on a day when top Polish politicians and religious officials were attending formal ceremonies marking the 1,050th anniversary of the adoption of Christianity - an event considered to mark the origin of the Polish state - the prime minister added: “I get the impression that certain elites are embarrassed by the fact they are Poles.” (pk)

Source: IAR/PAP

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